Review of Crocodile (Echo and the Bunnymen)

This review was originally written for the Music Emission website. Check out the review, and the site!

Crocodiles is the first full-length release by post-punk band Echo and the Bunnymen. At the time of release, the band consisted of Ian McCulloch (Vocals, Guitar), Will Sergeant (Lead Guitar), Les Pattinson (Bass), and Pete de Freitas (Drums). I will be reviewing the UK LP release, which had ten tracks, as opposed to the American release which had twelve.

The musicianship on this album is nothing special. The band shows themselves to be reasonably competent at composing music and playing their instruments. The music itself is pretty standard post-punk fare, with a bit of a dark edge to it. Haunting tunes, such as Monkeys and Stars are Stars are emotionally and eerily powerful, and definitely a plus for me. While McCulloch's voice does nothing for me personally, his vocal style is at least unique.

In the negative, the album has a stretch of boring songs, wherein the musicianship is fine but the music leaves me waiting for the song to flip past. This begins around the title track, into Rescue, and continues for much of the rest of the album. Fans of The Cure, I predict, will either like it for sounding similar, or hate it for sounding similar but falling short. It is by no means a ripping off, but the elements the band puts forward are not as distinct as they might be.

All told, this album is extremely middle of the road. I find it neither excellent nor repugnant. Echo and the Bunnymen are neither excruciatingly bad, nor are they the Gods of post-punk (as they had been hyped to me). I wish this review could be longer, and I wish Crocodiles had given me more to speak about. If you're hard up for finding something you haven't heard before, go ahead and check this album out, otherwise I'd probably wait until more desperation set in.